1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric wiring simulation device for simulating the characteristics of an electric wiring when the wiring is short-circuited. The present invention particularly relates to an electric wiring simulation device capable of making a simulation as to whether or not the protecting part of an electric wiring is fused and whether or not the wiring smokes and a recording medium recording a simulation program for the electric wiring simulation device.
2. Description of the Related Art
To simulate the circuit characteristics of a semiconductor integrated circuit, there is conventionally proposed a simulation method (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-327698) capable of more accurately obtaining current and voltage in view of the self-heating of circuit elements. This method does not, however, simulate the characteristics of an electric wiring such as a wire harness when the wiring is short-circuited.
To conduct a characteristics test while the electric wiring is short-circuited, therefore, a wire harness is actually formed as a sample and the sample wire harness is actually short-circuited.
The conventional wire harness characteristics test will be described based on FIG. 1. In the conventional wire harness characteristics test, a wire harness 101 serving as a test sample is connected to the positive terminal of a battery 102 serving as a power supply and a load terminal 103 which becomes a short-circuited region is connected to the negative terminal of the battery 102 through a knife switch 104.
Then, the knife switch 104 is turned on to short-circuit a circuit, a short-circuit current value at this time is obtained by a clamp ammeter 105 and measured by a memory HiCoder 106. Time taken for a protecting pat 107 such as a fuse to be fused is also measured.
According to a conventional test, a wire harness serving as a sample is actually formed, actually short-circuited and a test is conducted to judge whether or not the protecting part is normally operated and fused or whether or not the wire harness smokes.
However, a characteristics test conducted using the above-described sample wire harness cannot be conducted unless the sample wire harness is actually formed, so that a timely test cannot be disadvantageously conducted. Furthermore, if a test is conducted while the sample wire harness is short-circuited, not only the sample wire harness but also other parts such as a battery and respective switches are necessary, whereby cost for testing material is disadvantageously pushed up.